Dragonback 05 Dragon and Judge (26 page)

"I'm checking my readings," Alison put in before Neverlin could
say anything. "Some safes have floating codes and chron flippers."

"It is stalling," the Patri accused again. "It cannot solve the
puzzle and thus seeks an opportunity to run away from it."

And out of the corner of her eye, Alison saw Frost stiffen.

She flicked her eyes toward him. But whatever it was she'd seen
had instantly been buried behind an expressionless face. "With all due
respect, I'm not going anywhere," Alison said. "I've got twenty
thousand riding on this." She raised her eyebrows at Neverlin. "Forty
if I can do it before Mr. Arthur finishes his Easter egg hunt."

Neverlin's eyes narrowed. "Look, Kayna—"

"Actually, I think we could all do with a break," Frost cut him
off smoothly. "In any event, it
is
almost lunchtime. Kayna can
eat in her room and take whatever thinking time she needs. When she's
ready, we can all meet again. Is that acceptable?"

Neverlin had switched his narrowed-eyed stare to Frost. But he
merely nodded. "Fine with me. Patri Chookoock?"

"
If
it is ever ready," the Brummga growled.

"She will be," Frost promised. "Come on, Kayna. I'll take you back
to your room."

Neither of them spoke until they reached Alison's slave-level
room. Alison walked inside; without waiting for an invitation, Frost
followed. "Isn't it interesting how the human mind works?" he commented
conversationally as he closed the door behind him. "I've been watching
you for two weeks without a clue. And then, a single offhand comment
from a fat, ugly lump with stuffed cabbage for brains, and suddenly it
comes clear."

Alison held her breath. If he'd gotten a clean look at her in the
Rho Scorvi forest . . .

"Running away." Frost leveled a finger at her face, his casual
manner abruptly gone. "You're a deserter from the Malison Ring."

Alison's breath went out in a huff. Bad enough, but not as bad as
she'd feared.

But definitely bad enough. "The what?" she asked. It might still
pay her to play stupid.

It didn't. "Don't waste my time," Frost bit out. "Your hair's
different—shorter and darker—but I remember the face from the newslist.
You joined up about eight months ago, went through basic, then
disappeared the week you were sent to your first post."

"All right," Alison said as calmly as she could. "I admit it. I
got scared and ran."

"Oh, you didn't get scared," Frost said. "And you didn't just run.
Because I also remember that your training camp CO reported there might
have been a breach in his computer system during the six weeks you were
there."

Alison grimaced. So she'd left a trail behind her on that job.
Between the Malison Ring and the Whinyard's Edge, she wasn't running up
a very good record here. "I was just trying to clear out my record,"
she said, letting a little tremor drift into her voice. "I knew I
couldn't handle the job, and thought—"

"Spare me," Frost snarled. "I've had about as much of you as I can
stomach."

"Okay, fine," Alison said, dropping the tremor. "Game's over. I'm
not exactly thrilled by the company, either, if you want to know the
truth. But you still need me."

"Maybe not as badly as you think," Frost said. "Like you said, the
game's over. So here's what's going to happen. You're going back to
that room—today—and you're going to open that safe."

Alison stared at him, her throat tightening. "I can't," she said.
"I don't know how to deactivate the self-destruct bomb."

"Then you'd better figure it out, hadn't you?" Frost advised
coldly. "Because if it goes off, the Patri will have you shot." He
shrugged. "Either way, I'll be happy."

Across her back,Alison felt Taneem shifting position. Quickly, she
put a warning hand on her shoulder. "Can I at least have an hour to
think?"

"Sure," Frost said, opening the door again. "Take all afternoon if
you want." He leveled his finger again. "But sometime before midnight
tonight, you're going to open that safe." Stepping out into the
corridor, he closed the door behind him.

For a long minute Alison just stood there, staring at the closed
door, her mind skidding like an out-of-control bobsled.

One way or another, she was going to die tonight.

Taneem bounded out of her back collar. The sudden weight threw
Alison off balance, and she barely caught herself before she could slam
into the wall. "I'm sorry," Taneem apologized as she turned back
around. "I came off too quickly."

"No, it's okay," Alison said, looking at the K'da with a surge of
guilt.
Take care of Taneem
, Jack had told her just before he'd
disappeared on Semaline.

Instead, Alison's failure was going to get her killed, too.

"Are you worried?" Taneem asked, stepping closer and peering into
Alison's face.

"Yes, I'm worried," Alison told her honestly. "In fact, I'm
terrified."

The dragon twitched her tail. "How may I help?"

Alison sighed as she sat down on the edge of the bed. "I don't
think you can," she said.

"You
will
solve the problem," Taneem said firmly. "I know
you will."

Alison looked away from that earnest dragon face. "I don't think
so," she said quietly. "I'm stuck, Taneem. I can't figure out what the
people who designed the safe were trying to do."

She started as something settled onto her lap. She looked down to
see Taneem's head resting there, those silver eyes gazing up at her. It
was so exactly like the way her old Newfoundland used to do that it
brought tears to her eyes. "You're very clever, Alison," Taneem said.
"I've heard both Jack and Draycos say so."

Alison had to smile at that. "
Jack
actually paid me a
compliment?"

Taneem's tail flicked. "I'm not sure he meant it as a compliment,"
she conceded. "I think he was being annoyed with you at the time."

"That sounds better," Alison said. Her smile faded. "But all that
cleverness doesn't seem to be working. You were right—we should have
tried to get away back on Semaline."

"No, it was
you
who was right," Taneem insisted. "The risk
was worth taking. As you pointed out, if we'd attacked our captors we
might well have died."

"Instead of dying now," Alison said, stroking Taneem's head. "At
least you they won't have to worry about burying."

And was instantly ashamed of herself. It had been horribly
insensitive to remind Taneem that she would go two-dimensional and
simply disappear when she died. She opened her mouth to apologize—

The words frozen in her throat.
Would simply disappear
. .
.

And suddenly she had it. "That's it," she murmured. "Taneem, I've
got
it."

"I knew you would," the K'da said, lifting her head from Alison's
lap. "Tell me."

"They were smart," Alison said, her whole body feeling limp with
relief. "They were
very
smart. You know anything about
fingerprints and retina patterns? Well, no, probably you don't."

"Were those some of the tests the doctor performed when we first
arrived?" Taneem asked.

"Yes—right," Alison confirmed. She'd forgotten Taneem had been
there for that.

Which was a strange thought all by itself. Was she really getting
so comfortable with Taneem's presence that she could actually forget
the K'da was there against her skin?

"Anyway, fingerprints and those other things are sometimes used
like keys to make sure the wrong people can't open a door or safe or
something," she said, getting back to her explanation. "That's what
those indentations on the side of the safe are for. One of the crew
puts their fingers in the right holes, that triggers some sensors, and
then you can open the safe without the bomb going off and destroying
everything inside."

Taneem pondered that a moment. "So the reason the other two safes
were destroyed was that the people didn't know which indentations to
use?"

"Partly," Alison said. "But mostly, they didn't have the right
fingers."

Taneem cocked her head. "I don't understand."

"See, the problem with this kind of lock is that sometimes they
can be fooled," Alison told her. "All a bad person has to do is kill
someone who has access and then take his fingers or his eyes."

Taneem's neck arched. "That's
barbaric
!"

"I agree," Alison said. "Though it's actually a little more
complicated these days. The point is that the safe's designers didn't
want that happening here." She smiled grimly. "So whose digits do you
suppose they keyed the lock for?"

Taneem's jaws cracked open in a wide smile. "They keyed it for
K'da toes."

"Exactly," Alison said, nodding. "Add in the fact that you need a
K'da/Shontine combination in order to look over the wall and figure out
which indentations to use, and you can see that Neverlin and the
Valahgua pretty well shot themselves in the foot when they wiped out
Draycos's team."

"Only they don't know it," Taneem said thoughtfully. "What then do
we do?"

"We open their safe for them," Alison said, standing up and
holding out her hand. "Come on, let's get some lunch. Then we'll show
them how a
real
safecracker does things."

Frost had apparently expected Alison to stall as long as she
could. As a result, he was the last to arrive when the group gathered
again in the Patri's suite after lunch. "Good of you to join us,
Colonel," Neverlin said with an edge of sarcasm as Frost slipped into
the room. "Alison says she's ready."

"Does she," Frost said, giving Alison a long, hard look as he
crossed to his usual seat.

"Yes, she does," Alison said. "Or were you expecting her to wait
until a little closer to your deadline?"

Neverlin frowned. "Deadline?"

"Colonel Frost told me before lunch that I had until midnight
tonight to get the safe open," Alison explained.

Neverlin turned an unreadable expression on Frost. "Or?" he
prompted.

"The Patri Chookoock was right—she was stalling," Frost said
before Alison could answer. "I thought she could use a little extra
incentive."

"And as you see, it worked," Alison said, watching Neverlin
closely. "You ought to let the colonel take charge more often."

"We'll certainly consider it," Neverlin said coolly as he turned
back to Alison. "And we're waiting."

Alison nodded and turned back to the safe. That had been risky,
she knew. But the more she could create or encourage strains between
Neverlin and his allies, the better. Kneeling down in front of the
safe, she stretched out her left arm along the line of indentations,
resting her palm on top of numbers four and six. "I hope someone's got
my money ready," she commented as she got a grip on the combination
dial.

And as she did so, she felt a whisper of weight come onto her palm
as Taneem lifted her forepaw from Alison's hand and slid two of her
toes into the proper indentations.

Alison keyed the combination she had worked out. There was a soft
snick from somewhere inside the safe. Praying that she'd gotten
everything right, she took hold of the break bar and pulled.

Without any fuss or muss, or smoke or explosions, the door swung
open.

Neverlin and Frost were there in an instant, Frost shoving Alison
aside in his eagerness. Fortunately, Taneem was able to get her toes
out of sight before Alison's hand was pushed away from the safe wall.
"Hey!" Alison protested as she lost her balance and landed flat on her
rear.

Both men ignored her. "Well?" the Patri rumbled from his chair.

"They're here," Neverlin said, his voice almost shaking with
excitement. He pulled his cupped hands out of the safe, full of the
little diamonds Taneem had described. "And
not
burned to ashes."

The Patri gestured to one of the Brummgas standing guard by the
door. "Order that its money is to be prepared," he said. "Order, too,
that a transport be made ready."

"Let's not be too hasty," Frost cautioned, peering down at the
diamonds. "This
is
from the one that crashed, remember. I think
we should make sure the data's intact before we turn her loose."

"He's right," Neverlin seconded. "I'm sure she won't mind hanging
around another day or so." He sent Alison a cultured sort of smirk.
"After all, she's the one who suggested we should listen to the colonel
more often."

Carefully, Alison suppressed a smile. She'd been afraid she would
have to find a way to make that suggestion herself. "Not a problem,"
she assured them. "Just remember that another job will cost another
twenty thousand."

"Understood," Neverlin said. "Colonel, would you escort Ms. Kayna
back to her room?"

"I'll have Dumbarton and Mrishpaw do it," Frost said. "I think I'd
better stay and help you check this out."

For a long moment the two men gazed at each other. "Whatever you'd
like," Neverlin said at last. "Ms. Kayna, we'll see you later."

The afternoon dragged by. Alison spent the entire time alone in
her room, wondering each minute if someone was about to arrive, hand
her twenty thousand, and escort her out through the gate.

Kicking her off the Chookoock estate before she and Taneem had a
chance to find and open the other safe.

But no one came. Shoofteelee arrived with her dinner at the usual
time, with his usual polite but somewhat distant attitude. Alison and
Taneem ate, then settled in for an evening that promised to be as long
and nerve-wracking as the afternoon had been.

Again, no one had arrived by the time the lights-out warning tone
came over the room's intercom. Alison was already in bed by then,
getting in a little pre-bedtime doze in anticipation of a sleepless
night ahead. Once the house was quiet, she and Taneem would go in
search of that final safe.